Pittsburgh – The Town Without Bananas

Despite battling Restless Leg Syndrome every night (for which I take medication every day), I am also prone to potassium deficiency. Even as a child I would get leg cramps that felt like my muscles were being ripped from my bones. It happens when I overwork my legs. As a child, I would run and play and climb things and ride my bike and horses all day, every day; and at night I would suffer the consequences. Because of this, my mother always made sure there were bananas in the house. ALWAYS!

Even in my 20s, I was a volunteer at City Park Riding Stables in New Orleans.
I would spend 5 to 6 hours each day (after a full day of work, mind you) walking horses and turning horses out to pasture, grooming them, and tacking them up for riding lessons — constantly on my feet, constantly moving my legs. I would stop at Winn Dixie every few days for a bunch of bananas for me, and a bag of carrots for the horses.

Still happens.
I am not used to walking a lot anymore, so living in downtown Pittsburgh this week has taken a toll (and probably given me some much needed exercise). I haven’t seen Penelope since I parked her Sunday night in the hotel parking garage. I’ve been walking everywhere. To the office, around Market Square, down by the rivers. Pittsburgh is a beautiful city, even in the dank gray that the Midwest is prone to in wintertime.

All this walking caught up with me last night as I approached the end of the work day.
I could feel my legs starting that familiar ache of potassium deficiency. On my way back to the hotel, I stopped in CVS and the hotel restaurant and the hotel convenience corner thinking I would find a banana to relieve my pain. No such luck. No bananas anywhere! I took solace in the fact that tomorrow the hotel restaurant would have their breakfast buffet and a la carte breakfast bar and surely there would be bananas there.

I stopped into the breakfast buffet this morning and saw all the baskets of beautiful, fresh fruits, but not a banana in sight. I asked the hostess if there were bananas somewhere, and she regretfully informed me that they did not have bananas. So, I ran across the street to CVS. The fruit baskets had once again been freshly re-stocked with shiny red apples, tantalizing oranges, but, alas, no bananas.

If you are not familiar with Market Square in downtown Pittsburgh, it’s literally a square rimmed by restaurants. Surely SOMEONE had to have a banana. Unfortunately, most of these places aren’t open for breakfast. I was just about to give up and started making my way to the office. On the last corner before I crossed the street to the tower, I spied an Einstein Bagels notched in a tiny space and it was open. I figured I would give it one more try.

I walked in and the smell of coffee and bagels was tantalizing, but right there … in the corner of the counter … not one, but TWO big baskets of bananas! No wonder no one else in Pittsburgh has bananas – Einstein Bagels is hording all of them! Obviously no one else knows about this as they had so freaking many bananas — in all stages of ripeness. I’m keeping this my little secret.